The Goat, or Who's Sylvia?

Upstart Productions Drama Company is bringing Edward Albee’s bold and daring tragicomedy “The Goat, or Who’s Sylvia?” to life again on the Maltese stage. The original production of the play had won the Tony Award on Broadway (2002), and also was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize (2003). Jane Zammit now directs Albee’s American masterpiece, in English, with a suberb Maltese cast of four. In the play, Anthony Ellul and Marceline Galea portray the middle-aged, idyllic couple Martin Gray and Stevie; and in the role of their adolescent gay son Billy is Preston Carbonaro. After our initial delightful and humorous introductions to the loving couple, lightning suddenly strikes. And the ensuing events and revelations are made all the worse by judgmental interference from Ross, an old dear friend of the family, who also is a hypocritical cynic, and is portrayed by Patrick Tanti. The play is about marriage and erotic fixation, and there also will be laughter in moments of incredulous self-recognition. We observe an ordinary loving and affectionate couple falling into a deep abyss, and the son is caught in the middle. In the havoc, all social semblance of normalcy unravels, until everyone becomes the victim. Albee’s play examines the limits of society’s tolerance (or intolerance) regarding love and its possible sexual expression, and he also engages the meaning of faithfulness, or of infidelity, in human relationships. However, as was Edward Albee’s own personal experience, we are witnesses of the terrifying solitude that comes from being a sexual outlaw in a society where love has its strict parameters. There will be two performances only: November 30th and December 1st, 2019, at 8:00 pm, at The Black Studio, Malta School of Drama and Dance, Mountbatten Street, Blata l-Bajda [Hamrun]. Rated 16+, tickets at €12 are by reservation, or are available at the door: Email: ejclemmer@gmail.com Mobile: 9942 1415 / 7934 6304